Bill Gates foundation to fund new 'online teaching model' in US

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Last Updated: Tue, Nov 20, 2012 06:20 hrs

Online courses provided by some of the top universities such as Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US will now be used by students at local community colleges, in a project funded by the Gates Foundation.

The edX project, set up by Harvard and the MIT, announced a plan to 'bring a new teaching model to the classroom'.

It will blend edX's online lectures and materials with classroom learning, the BBC reports.

According to the report, these so-called MOOCs, massive open online courses, have attracted millions of students since they were launched by some of the biggest names in US higher education.

This latest initiative from edX is experimenting with how these course materials might be used in the classroom by students in two community colleges in Massachusetts, Bunker Hill and MassBay.

The project will link these students with the same materials being used by their neighbours in Harvard and MIT.

According to the report, this will be funded with one million dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which wants to support innovation in education.

The idea is to explore how cutting-edge courses from prestigious universities could be adapted for use by students in other classroom settings, the report said. (ANI)